Aside

Contact

Programming Skills

R
Git/Github
Bash
MATLAB
Python

Disclaimer

Created with pagedown.
Source code on GitHub.
Last updated on 2020-03-05.

Download a PDF of this CV

Main

Brendan Cullen

I am a PhD student and National Science Foundation GRFP Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. As an aspiring data scientist, my long-term goal is to contribute to open-source software and to apply my computational skills as a researcher within an industry setting focused on enhancing health across the lifespan.

Education

PhD Student, Psychology

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

2022 - 2017

  • My research takes a translational (neuro)science approach toward predictive modeling of self-regulation processes and health-risking behaviors within a precision medicine framework.
  • I am currently pursuing a 5-course Data Science Specialization taught entirely in R, focused on data visualization, functional programming, and machine learning.

MS, Psychology

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

2019 - 2017

  • Thesis: Comparing cognitive and affective predictors of craving

BA, Neuroscience

Middlebury College

Middlebury, VT

2015 - 2011

  • Thesis: Neurophysiological correlates of self-referential activity in meditators and non-meditators

Honors & Awards

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

National Science Foundation

N/A

2023 - 2018

Center on Parenting and Opioids Pilot & Training Core Travel Award

University of Oregon

N/A

2020

Graduate School “Special Opps” Travel & Research Award

University of Oregon

N/A

2020

Graduate Education Committee Travel Award

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon

N/A

2019

Graduate School Recruitment Award

University of Oregon

N/A

2017

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute Fellow

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2017

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies Scholarship

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2016

BA in Neuroscience with Highest Honors, Summa Cum Laude

Middlebury College

N/A

2015

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa

Middlebury College

N/A

2015

Dean’s Honor List (8 semesters)

Middlebury College

N/A

2015 - 2011

Rosalin Lieberman-Reiss Memorial Award

Department of Psychology, Middlebury College

N/A

2015

  • Awarded to a graduating senior who shows the greatest promise to contribute to the treatment and cure of severe mental illness.

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute Fellow

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2015

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies Scholarship

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2014

Academic Conference Travel Fund Award

Middlebury College

N/A

2014

Senior Research Project Supplement

Middlebury College

N/A

2014

Bicentennial Fund for Research Partnerships in the Sciences Fellowship

Middlebury College

N/A

2014

Fred M. Roddy Research Fellowship in Biomedical Science

Middlebury College

N/A

2013

Professional Research Experience

Graduate Employee

Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab

University of Oregon

2018 - 2017

  • Selected self-report measures and co-designed interventions for NCI-funded RCT comparing behavioral response and cognitive reappraisal interventions for devaluing unhealthy food
  • Created automated workflow for daily backup of fMRI backup via a high performance computing cluster

Research Assistant

Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab

Brown University

2017 - 2015

  • Cleaned and scored self-report data (20+ measures) from an NIH-funded 3-armed RCT comparing focused awareness meditation, open-monitoring meditation, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on clinical efficacy for depression
  • Led a project investigating the effects of meditation training on EEG and behavioral measures of self-referential processing

Research Assistant

Embodied Neuroscience Lab

Brown University

2017 - 2015

  • Collected EEG data for pilot RCT testing a neuromuscular-immune model of chronic fatigue in female cancer survivors
  • Designed custom software in MATLAB to implement novel EEG/EMG paradigm for measuring neural correlates of tactile acuity and precision grip strength

Recruitment Specialist

Women’s Medicine Collaborative,
Miriam Hospital

Providence, RI

2016

  • Developed strategies to recruit specialized patient populations for randomized controlled trials, including female cancer survivors and patients with asthma

Research Assistant

Social Psychology of Meditation Lab

Middlebury College

2015 - 2014

  • Led a study on relationship between mindfulness, hormones, empathy, and prosocial behavior
  • Recruited and interviewed participants, administered surveys and cognitive tests, and analyzed salivary cortisol and testosterone assays

Research Assistant

Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Lab

Middlebury College

2014 - 2013

  • Collected animal behavior data on the dose-dependent effects of testosterone replacement on spatial memory
  • Performed behavioral testing, prepared brain samples, collected microscopy data and assisted with manuscript preparation

Teaching Experience

I believe that learning open source data science tools can empower us to be better scientists. During my third year of graduate school, I served as a teaching assistant and lab instructor for a graduate-level advanced data analysis sequence and have spent a significant amount of time creating educational resources about working with data in R. I have relished the opportunity to help equip my fellow graduate students learn R and increase the efficiency and reproducibility of their own research projects.

Teaching Assistant

PSYC 301: Physiological Psychology

Middlebury College

2015

  • Assisted with lab and discussion sections, held exam review sessions, prepared experimental equipment, and conducted animal testing for student projects

Workshops Taught

Introduction to Git and Github

Psychology First Year Research Seminar

University of Oregon

2020

  • Introductory workshop for first-year psychology PhD and Masters students on basics of using Git and Github for version control

Intermediate Git and Github

UO Data Science Club

University of Oregon

2019

  • Intermediate Git/Github workshop for University of Oregon’s Data Science Club, including discussion of merge conflicts, branching, pull requests, and best practices for collaborative Github projects

Peer-reviewed Publications

Dismantling Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Creation and validation of 8-week Focused Attention and Open Monitoring interventions within a 3-armed randomized controlled trial

Behaviour and Research Therapy, 101, 92-107.

N/A

2018

  • Britton, W.B., Davis, J., Loucks, E.B., Peterson, B., Cullen, B., Reuter, L., Rando, A., Rahrig, H., Lipsky, J. & Lindahl, J. (2018).

Comparing embodiment experiences in expert meditators and non-meditators

Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 325-333.

N/A

2018

  • Xu, A., Cullen, B., Penner, C., Zimmerman, C., Kerr, C.E., & Schmalzl, L. (2018)

Dose-dependent effects of testosterone on spatial memory in adult male rats

Psychoneuroendocrinology, 89, 120-130.

N/A

2018

  • Wagner, B., Braddick, V. Batson, C., Cullen, B., Miller, E. & Spritzer, M. (2018).

Works in Progress

The contributions of focused attention and open monitoring in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: a 3-armed randomized dismantling trial

In prep

N/A

2020

  • Cullen, B., Eichel, K., Lindahl, J., Rahrig, H., Kini, N., Flahive, J. & Britton, W.B.

Neural correlates of emotion reactivity and emotion regulation in women with borderline personality disorder: A replication of the literature with novel extensions

In prep

N/A

2020

  • Lewis, J., Cullen, B.,Giuliani, N., & Zalewski, M.

Comparing cognitive and affective predictors of craving

In prep

N/A

2020

  • Cullen, B., DeStasio, K., Cosme, D., & Berkman, E.T.

Selected Poster Presentations

Cognitive versus affective predictors of craving

Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Portland, OR

2019

  • Cullen, B., DeStasio, K., Cosme, D., & Berkman, E.T. (2019)

Personalized stop-signal training to improve inhibitory control among adults who experienced early adversity

Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Portland, OR

2019

  • DeStasio, K., Cullen, B., Shaffer, K., & Berkman, E.T. (2019)

Teacher effects in a school-based mindfulness intervention

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

Garrison, NY

2017

  • Cullen, B., Canby, N., & Britton, W. B.

Sustained Attention in Focused Attention versus Open Monitoring Meditation: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Changes

29th Association for Psychological
Science Annual Convention

Boston, MA

2017

  • Eichel, K., Essien, G., Cullen, B., Rogers, A. & Britton, W.B.

Dose-dependent effects of testosterone on spatial memory in young and adult male rats

International Meeting for Steroids and the
Nervous System

Turin, Italy

2017

  • Spritzer, M.D., Batson, C.G., Braddick, V.C., Chyr, C.U., Cullen, B., Goins, E.C., Jaeger, E.C.B., Miller, L.E., Super, C., & Wagner, B.A.

An open-source system for EEG neurofeedback and transcranial current stimulation control: Applications for meditation research

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies,
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Cullen, B., Santoyo, J., Black, C., McFarlane-Blake, C. & Kerr, C.

A Neurofeedback Informed Meditation Technique (NIMT) for modulating posterior cingulate cortex activity: Proof-of concept for a novel mental-training paradigm with clinical applications

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies,
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Santoyo, J., Cullen, B., & Kerr, C.

The role of social relationships in contemplative development

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

Garrison, NY

2016

  • Canby, N., Margolis, C., Cullen, B., Rahrig, H., Alejandra-Lara, A., Noorani, M., Lindahl, J. & Britton, W.

The impact of social relationship factors on clinical outcomes in Mindfulness-Based Interventions

Brown University Mind Brain Research Day
Brown University Public Health Research Day

Providence, RI

2016

  • Cullen, B., Rahrig, H., Dumais, T., Canby, N., Lindahl, J., & Britton, W.

Neurophysiological correlates of self-referential activity in meditators and non-meditators

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

Garrison, NY

2015

  • Cullen, B., Bruns, M., Paritsky, A., McGuirk, E., Ogle, T., Kimble, M., & Cronise, K.

Neurophysiological correlates of self-referential activity in meditators and non-meditators

Advances in Meditation Research

New York, NY

2015

  • Cullen, B., Bruns, M., Paritsky, A., McGuirk, E., Ogle, T., Kimble, M., & Cronise, K.

Do expert meditators differ from novice and non-meditators in emotion identification, physiological competitive reactions, or prosocial responses?

Center for Compassion and Altruism Research
and Education Science of Compassion Conference

San Francisco, CA

2014

  • Cullen, B., Stallworthy, I., Lesenskyj, A., Boles, L., Weinert-Stein, M., Percelay, R., Kahn, H.; McGuirk, E., Sellers, J., & Cronise, K.

Effects of testosterone dose on spatial memory in adult male rats

Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting

Washington, D.C.

2014

  • Cullen, B., Spritzer, M., Batson, C., Spillane, S., & Wagner, B.


Talks

Dismantling effects of focused attention and open monitoring techniques in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for affective disturbances

Annual Meeting and Expo of the American
Public Health Association

Atlanta, GA

2017

  • Chang, B., Cullen, B., Kini, N., Rahrig, H., & Britton, W.

Movement, embodiment and interoception in the context of contemplative practices (Panel)

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Schmalzl, L., Powers, C., Yetz, N., Groessl, EJ., Saron, C., Kerr, C., Zimmerman, C., Cullen, B., Clark, D., Mostofsky, SH., Feinstein, J., Khalsa, S., Simmons, K., & Paulus, M.

Effects of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on sustained attention

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Eichel, K., Cullen, B., & Britton, W.

Additional Training

Introduction to Machine Learning with the Tidyverse

rstudio::conf(2020)

San Francisco, CA

2020

  • Two-day workshop on machine learning with tidymodels taught by Alison Hill

Service & Leadership

Co-organizer

Cascadia R Conf 2020

Eugene, OR

2020

  • Updated website for 2020 conference, designed new hex sticker, secured additional sponsors

Co-organizer

Eugene Brainhack

Eugene, OR

2018

  • Co-organized a two-day Brainhack event hosted at the University of Oregon that involved collaborative software development projects related to computational neuroscience and psychology

Science communication ambassador

The People’s Science

Eugene, OR

2018

  • Trained to be a coach to assist people with communicating their scientific work to the general public

Lab Tour Guide

Intel Science Fair

Eugene, OR

2018

  • Gave a presentation for middle- and high-school students as part of a science outreach event during the regional Intel Science Fair in Eugene
  • Gave students a tour of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab and hosted a Q&A session about scientific careers

Co-organizer

Mindfulness, Healing and Empathy in Healthcare Speaker Series,
Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University

Providence, RI

2016

  • Coordinated with guest speakers for a 6-part lecture series for Brown University medical students and community members
  • Created a website to advertise the public talks and to provide community members with information about mindfulness resources